


A Wish For You

by Shujinkakusama



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Cover Art, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Pre-Series, maternal feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-30 12:09:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8532496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shujinkakusama/pseuds/Shujinkakusama
Summary: Pearl has seen many things in her long life. She wouldn't wish immortality on anyone. Until Steven. // Motherly feels everywhere, fluff, some angst, not shippy in the slightest. Old art at the end.





	

 

Immortality was a curse Pearl wouldn’t wish on anyone who hadn’t been born this way. Gems were different, magical beings intended to exist for millennia at a time; society on Homeworld was structured accordingly, and the empire expanded to accommodate new Gems as they were extracted from colonies. Comparatively speaking, pearls were actually a fairly short-lived caste next to rubies or emeralds, whose life spans were double and triple that of the servant class. After all, for all that Gemkind was stagnant, had plateaued millennia ago, fashion was fleeting, and pearls were easily made and broken.

 

On Earth, however, Pearl had seen the rise and fall of most human empires, assisted with a few that needed gentle pushes in the right direction, and watched as fauna and flora were discovered and hunted to extinction. Comparatively speaking, Pearl was a goddess among men, the source of legends; she was Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, born in moonlight and feared by men who crossed her swords. In the same way, Garnet had a reputation for seeing the future, the original Delphic Oracle. Rose Quartz was Ishtar, simultaneously a goddess of carnal pleasure and war, flanked by tame lions that obeyed her word. Amethyst was many things, often disguised as Pan, the satyr, or a djinn to those who found her Gem and wished upon it at the right time.

 

Pearl had lived so long that these tales had fallen into obscurity in her lifetime, had been forgotten by man, and sometimes, though mankind was making great progress, she missed older times. She missed the lazy way Rose Quartz could walk through the streets of Rome and have flower petals thrown at her feet, the way children would come to Garnet seeking answers, the way that Amethyst would reward humans for their help with silly trinkets and stories that had to be larger than life.

 

Pearl was old now, nearing nine thousand, and she sat uncomfortably in the back of Greg Universe’s van, watching as his son—Rose Quartz’s heir—slept peacefully in a nest of blankets. Her back was straight, her shoulders square, and she looked down from time to time to be sure that the half-human child remained asleep. Greg had work to do, and that work begot money to spend on Steven, but couldn’t be done with a slumbering babe in one arm. Pearl understood the practicality of her mission to watch the child while Garnet and Amethyst were away on a mission of their own.

 

She just didn’t know what to _do_.

 

Steven was small and fragile, needed a hand at his neck to support him; needed so much more care than even Amethyst had when they’d found her. Rearing a feral Gem to be somewhat civilized was one thing, but a half-human child…

 

Time on Earth passed quickly. Pearl detested it now, hated how little time she had with many of the Crystal Gems, hated that seasons came only months apart and that days grew shorter in the winter. Soon Steven would grow up, and it would only be a handful of decades before he was the same age as Greg was now—and then what, she wondered bitterly, would he die like Greg would, too?

 

Pearl looked away from the baby, scrubbing at her eyes with the back of one hand. There was nothing for it. Rose Quartz wouldn’t be back after Steven’s life ran its course, and Steven couldn’t live forever—humans never did.

 

Beside her, the child stirred, troubled by dreams that Pearl couldn’t wrap her mind around even if she could see them. She turned toward him again, reaching out uncomfortably to smooth his scant tuft of curly dark brown hair (disappointingly not pink like his mother’s), and bleary, doe-like black eyes peeked up at her.

 

Pearl froze. She didn’t know what to do with him if he was awake.

 

Chubby little hands reached up eagerly, caught Pearl’s wrist and tugged, and Pearl was surprised by the child’s relative strength. She moved her hand down, watching warily as he played with her fingers.

 

“Do you know me?” Pearl asked quietly, blinking rapidly against tears in her eyes. She knew better, knew she shouldn’t ask questions of someone who couldn’t answer. “Do you remember me? I’m Pearl. Your Pearl.”

 

The baby blinked owlishly back at her and tried to suck one of her fingers into his mouth; Pearl withdrew her hand just in time.

 

“Of course you don’t,” she murmured, and her heart broke at the idea that Steven would never be Rose—never could be Rose Quartz, no matter how much he _did_ remember, if there was anything there at all. “I’m a fool for asking.”

 

“Pa-al!” Steven cooed, reaching for her hand again, and in her surprise, the Gem let him have it. He pressed his entire face into her palm and blew spit against her skin in what was either a raspberry or a mockery of a kiss. “Mm, Pa-al!”

 

Pearl couldn’t hold back her tears then, and she leaned down, scooping him up in a hug, blankets and all, mindful of his neck and head. “Your Pearl,” she murmured, rocking the child gently as if he were the one who needed reassurance. In that moment, something changed, some shift in her heart, and Pearl knew that the past was gone forever—but this, _Steven_ , was the future.

 

She had never wished immortality on anyone before that moment. But how she wished it now, that Steven would live forever and grow wise and strong like his mother before him.

 

 

 


End file.
